Sears Essentials to open in Carmel Mountain Ranch

CARMEL MOUNTAIN RANCH —— Sears Roebuck Co. is converting a Big
Kmart store in Carmel Mountain Ranch into one of the first wave of
new Sears Essentials stores opening across the country.

The rebranded stores —— all chosen from more than 50 Kmart
stores acquired by Sears last year shortly before Kmart Holding
Corp. made an offer to buy Sears —— will combine the most
distinctive product lines associated with both retail chains,
packing together in one stand-alone store the Craftsman tools,
Kenmore appliances and Diehard batteries that are Sears exclusives
and Martha Stewart housewares and Jaclyn Smith and Joe Boxer
clothing sold by Kmart.

The Big Kmart is at 12080 Carmel Mountain Road, not far from
Poway's Target and Wal-Mart stores whose customers are the prize
the new Sears brand is hoping to capture.

"We had identified that the stores being converted all are in
areas that fit the Sears demographic more closely than the Kmart
demographic," Sears spokeswoman Corinne Gudovic said Wednesday.

"And they were located in densely developed areas where we
otherwise would not have been able to create new off-mall
locations," she said.

"Off-mall" is Sears' way of speaking about a free-standing
store. Most existing Sears department stores are anchors at
shopping malls. Kmart's retail philosophy has led it to emphasize
sites that stand away from other large department stores, and the
Sears Essentials stores will adopt that philosophy.

The transformation from a Big Kmart to a Sears Essentials store
will take place while the store remains open, and is expected to be
completed by spring. The store's interior layout, according to a
Sears news release, will feature a so-called racetrack design,
which allows customers to move freely around the store in a pattern
that will expose them to most of the store's product display areas
with a simple walk around the loop. Kmart's exit cashier stations,
similar to those found in supermarkets, will be retained instead of
the familiar department store sales islands scattered throughout
the store.

"Our goal was to be in locations where our customers shop
already," Gudovic said of the choice of the Carmel Mountain Ranch
store for rebranding. Altogether, four Kmart stores in San Diego
County are being converted to Sears Essentials stores, the most in
any county in the country.

The waiting period required under antitrust law for the
acquisition of a major competitor has expired, and the $11 billion
takeover of Sears by Kmart, which still must be approved by both
companies' stockholders, could be completed before summer.